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YEAR IN REVIEW: After seven years, school land deal closes

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth and School Board President Clarinda Vail are surrounded by key players in the ELGA land acquisition including Pete Shearer, Superintendent Sheila Breen and Tusayan District Ranger Rick Stahn.

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth and School Board President Clarinda Vail are surrounded by key players in the ELGA land acquisition including Pete Shearer, Superintendent Sheila Breen and Tusayan District Ranger Rick Stahn.

After seven years of saying "hopefully, next year," school officials and community leaders finally closed the deal on an agreement with the Forest Service for the Grand Canyon School District to buy 80 acres of land in Tusayan.

Papers were signed in March and the transfer happened in a ceremony in late June, attended by former Rep. J.D.Hayworth, who sponsored the Education Land Grand Act that allowed the district to buy at $10 an acres. A cast of community leaders, including Clarinda Vail, Pete Shearer, Ron Williams, Forest Ranger Rick Stahn and School Superintendent Sheila Breen shepherded the paperwork through numerous technicalities, particularly with questions of who owned easements around the airport.

The first stage of development over the next five years will be putting in sports fields and a park - bolstered by donations to the Bill Foster Memorial Fund and $50,000 gifted by developers, the Stilo Corp.

The county is also likely to include some recreational development of the site in its five-year Parks and Recreation Plan.

Phase two includes a school district office, dorm for Native American students and a joint use facility for alternative education opportunities such as those offered by Coconino Community College.

Phase three will be a new high school, which is projected for about 10 years out. While the district can't receive funding from the state to build a school until the high school population is 140, Breen said they are looking for possible private funding.


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